FRIDAY, DEC. 19, 2014

WILDLIFE -- The Center for Biological Diversity has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revive a plan for relocate grizzly bears to the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem in central Idaho and western Montana. The agency first initiated a plan to return grizzly bears to the...

THURSDAY, DEC. 18, 2014

WINTERSPORTS -- Montana's Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club is getting a boost from Lost Trail Powder Mountain to keep the nordic trails at Chief Joseph Pass groomed, even after a big dump of powder snow. The agreement calls for the resort to deploy the ski hill’s...

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17, 2014

UPDATED 8:15 p.m. with info about missing guard dog. PREDATORS -- More sheep have been killed by a wolf or wolves in northwestern Whitman County since the first attack in decades in the county occurred on Dec. 9. Three dead sheep were investigated Tuesday where...

ENDANGERED SPECIES -- Endangered California condors appear to be two-for three this year in efforts to recover the endangered species to historic range in Arizona and Utah. While no carcass has been spotted or found, biologists following the first documented California condor chick hatched in...

THREATENED SPECIES -- The fate of an iconic western prairie bird appears to be hanging in limbo. U.S. officials say they will decide next year whether a wide-ranging Western bird species needs protections even though Congress has blocked such protections from going into effect. According...

WILDLIFE WATCHING -- That November cold snap provided all sorts of opportunities for winter worshippers, including some fine ice skating conditions at the region's lakes. Before the thaw, Ed Shaw was skating on Bayley Lake in the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge when he...

WATERFOWLING -- Impressive numbers of ducks were tallied in a recent winter waterfowl survey for the North Columbia Basin, which includes all important Columbia River pools, large lakes, wasteways, reserves, and Columbia National Wildlife Refuge waters around Grant, Douglas and Adams Counties. During this two-day...

WILDLIFE WATCHING -- The number of bald eagles has nearly doubled since last week for their annual gathering to feast on kokanee spawning in the northeastern corner of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Carrie Hugo, U.S. Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist, counted 66 bald eagles Tuesday...

TUESDAY, DEC. 16, 2014

POACHING -- Washington Fish and Wildlife Police are asking the public for tips to help solve an elk poaching case in Pend Oreille County near Ione. Around midnight on Dec. 2, 2014, a spike bull elk was unlawfully killed by someone using a spotlight and...

WILDLIFE -- While Washington wildlife officials have decided to feed deer this winter near Pateros to keep them from ravaging agricultural areas, the wildfires of 2014 are not forcing the feeding of other deer herds in the formerly charred lands in Okanogan region. Rain and...

WILDLIFE RESEARCH -- Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists recently battled difficult weather to capture 28 moose and put radio collars on 24 moose in northeastern Washington. That brings the total to more than 50 collared moose involved in the state's first major study...

WILDLIFE – Washington wildlife officials are temporarily feeding deer to protect orchards in the Pateros area but they say widespread feeding of Okanogan County mule deer is not needed at this time. Here's the report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: Northcentral regional...

WILDLIFE WATCHING -- Disease that's ravaged wild sheep in parts of Washington, Idaho and Montana in recent years has shown up in one of America's most prized wildlife preserves. A pneumonia outbreak has killed at least ten bighorn sheep near Yellowstone National Park. Montana Fish...

HUNTING -- An Idaho man has been sentenced to 2 years’ probation after Idaho Fish and Game officials said he illegally killed a grizzly bear. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game announced the conviction on Monday, saying it was the first time the state...

WILDLIFE -- Eighteen grizzly bears have been killed in encounters with humans in north-central Montana this year, but none had to be destroyed by wardens because they became troublesome, state and federal experts said at a recent conference in Missoula. The statistics were disclosed last...

FISHING — News out of Jackson, Wyo., is startling at first -- Trout numbers on the Snake River below Palisades Reservoir declined an estimated 32 percent during the past year. But don't cancel you plans to make a fly fishing float trip there next season....

MONDAY, DEC. 15, 2014

FISHING -- Clearwater River steelhead fishing has been hot lately, according to Joe DuPont, Idaho Fish and Game Department regional fisheries manager in Lewiston. but that's going to change temporarily on Thursday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be doing tests at Dworshak Dam...

FISHING -- Every angler with a clue knows that 2014 was a fabulous fall chinook salmon fishing season on the Columbia River. But Paul Hoffarth, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist in the Tri-Cities, just tallied the following numbers to put the season...

WINTERSPORTS -- Cross-country skiers and snowshoers have two choices to satisfy their longings in this unusually snow-shy start to winter: Travel. Take a hike. The photos above are two examples in point. Nora Searing found fall-like conditions on the south side of Antoine Peak Conservation...

POACHING -- It's stunning to learn that: A team of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife police devoted a day and night of surveillance at Banks Lake... One officer hiding in the rocks for 7.5 hours... Before they closed in to make a bust... That...

HUNTING -- An increase in Idaho Panhandle moose hunting opportunity and other proposals for next year's trophy big-game seasons will be presented at an open house meeting, 3 p.m.-6 p.m., on Thursday, Dec. 18 at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Panhandle Region Office,...

FRIDAY, DEC. 12, 2014

FISHING -- Just-released forecasts for spring chinook call for another excellent season in 2015 -- and preliminary forecasts predict another super season for fall chinook and coho. These predictions rival the whopper returns of this year, which prompted records in sport fishing success. (See table...

POACHING -- Men illegally using gillnets to catch hundreds of whitefish from Banks Lake were busted by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police on Dec. 8. The crime is similar to other gross cases of fish poaching from prized lakes in Grant County in...

THURSDAY, DEC. 11, 2014

UPDATED to point out that Senate is still working on passage of the measure. PUBLIC LANDS -- A 22,000-acre expansion of the 392,000-acre lpine Lakes Wilderness is among the wilderness provisions likely to be approved by the U.S. Senate this week after the lawmakers voted...